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Middle East Film & Comic Con: Let’s cosplay

Fans came out dressed for their wildest fantasies at the pop culture event

By David Tusing, Deputy tabloid! Editor

Published: 20:00 April 6, 2013

In the presence of one of the world’s most famous cosplayer, Alodia Gosiengfiao, Middle East fans proved more than able with their creative ideas for costume play at the second Middle East Film & Comic Con in Dubai this year.

Emirati Faisal Al Awadhi, 29, and his Kazakh friend Kamal, who only wanted to be known by one name, were a hit as video game characters Mario and his brother Luigi.

Anastasia Belova says she gets all her costume ideas from the internet. On Friday, the 14-year-old was rag doll-like Sally from Tim Burton’s ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. Her friend Zeanne Mendoza, 15, was Amu Hinamori from the Japanese manga and anime series ‘Shugo Chara!’.

Manga seemed to rule as Emirati teenager Khalid Mohammad was taken aback when this reporter told him he’d never heard of his character Shimura Shinpachi, a Samurai-in-training in the Japanese manga series ‘Gintama’.

“You should read it, it’s really, really good,” he advised.

His friend Abdullah Musbah, 15, was easier to guess: Thunder god Raiden from the ‘Mortal Kombat’ video game series.

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May, 16, came as a character in another manga series ‘Bleach’ while Rashmi Poojari, 26, was Yuna from the ‘Final Fantasy’ game series.

Luai Anani, who says he’s made more than Dh20,000 from winning prizes for his costumes, was Autobot Bumblebee from the ‘Transformers’ series on Friday.

“You should see me when it gets dark,” said Anani, 29, showing off his blinking headlights. “I need to switch them off now because they drain the battery.”

Anani, who said he buys his costumes over the internet, was a bit late this year to enter into the cosplay competition, which saw more than xxx contestants vie for prizes as judged by Gosiengfiao, her sister Ashley and ‘The Hobbit’ star Manu Bennett.

That competition, which started in the evening, went on late into the night.